Give someone freedom (to create, to inspire, to dream…) and
they will give you hope.
This past week I had the opportunity
to attend the IBM Redbooks Cloud Social Media Residency in Durham, NC. Such
residency provides an overview of the benefits related to Social Media
engagement. Although the sessions were well planned and thoughtful, I find
myself even more drawn towards some of the stories, persona and different
cultures in attendance. Such attendees came from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa
Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, India,
Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and USA to
name a few. Their stories and presentations were inspirational and not all
focused on technology. As the week progressed I had the good fortune to listen
to the stories of two drastically different individuals. One of them Mac Devine (IBM Distinguished Engineer, Master Inventor) provided us with some
insights on Cloud, Mac demonstrated such passion for technology as he walked
us thru his latest project and why it was so important to him, IBM and the
world.
Mac's latest project related to Cloud and the acquisition of Softlayer Technologies, Inc. You could feel how hard Mac
had worked towards the acquisition as from his own words “It’s a game changer”, “Its Cloud without compromise”. Furthermore
Mac exacerbated his passion, energy and unflappable belief towards the
fact IBM had made the right decision. It takes tremendous energy to convince
others that you are correct but more important Mac had been given the freedom
to explore the value of this engagement especially related to the acquisition
from a pricing, strategy and technology stand point. Big companies don’t always
move fast but in this case, IBM showed how nimble it could be.
The other individual, John Romaine stayed
at the same hotel than I had chosen. John was on business working at RDU
International Airport. John’s passion related to soccer for which he helped start
a club (South Georgia United – Youth Soccer) with only 2 teams a few years
back. John passion with Soccer was truly reflected in the way he sought to
teach and coach the game, allowing players to explore and discover the game. Having
coached Youth Soccer for over 20 years myself I found it exhilarating to hear
someone 2,300 miles away from home talk about the importance of mentoring our
youth and walk them thru their own journey.
Win or loss should not serve as a
foundation for teaching but more less a more precise focus should be on defining
the purpose, the decisions or actions behind every touches on the ball that make the “Beautiful
game” so great to watch. Even though John instill a strong foundation related
to the fundamentals of the game, he still knows when it is time to just let
the players be free and explore as today’s mistakes will turn into tomorrow’s
successes.
Regardless of our background,
personal or professional acumen I strongly believe in “Give someone freedom
(to create, to inspire, to dream…) and they will give you hope”.
I hope you enjoyed this story,
follow me on twitter @thinkahead and let’s continue the discussion.
I would like to extend my special
thanks to the IBM Red Books team for making the Residency so welcoming,
educational and more important inspirational. You can find those individuals on
YouTube Channel “IBM RedBooks”.
